Tax Policy

This course approaches the study of tax policy from an interdisciplinary perspective: we study the economics and moral rationales for tax policy – what makes good tax policy, and why?  We also study the politics of tax, or political economy.  We bring the more theoretical discussions of ideal tax policies into the real world by considering what makes tax reform possible, and where and why it deviates from the ideal. We also consider the more practical aspects of writing good tax policy, that is, tax policy from the administrators’ perspective. Finally, we look at why getting the law right is so important as a technical matter. The course covers issues relevant to both domestic and international tax policy.